Streetcar--Transportation 1942 - 1946

Robert Frank shot this photograph, sometime in the mid-twentieth century. There’s a lone figure, back to us, hat, coat, next to a streetcar – he’s waiting, watching, while the buildings loom, and a church steeple rises up in the distance. What’s he thinking? What’s Frank thinking? I bet he’s thinking, like most artists, how to take a picture or make a painting that someone might feel, as much as see. The greyscale flattens and unifies everything. It’s pretty, but it’s also kind of tough, or hard-boiled. There's a lot of detail but it's slightly out of focus. It's not perfect. You can see the marks of the film – imperfections – which are a beautiful reminder of how images have their own way of emerging. Frank is showing us that life is messy, and beautiful, and totally subjective. Each artist sees something different and makes a different mark.